OscailtThe Dublin Euro MEP Election CandidatesUse your vote to keep the Austerity MEPs out on Friday 23rd May 20142014-05-11T22:48:51+00:00Indymedia Irelandimc-ireland@lists.indymedia.iehttp://www.indymedia.ie/atomfullposts?story_id=104765http://www.indymedia.ie/graphics/feedlogo.gifforecasthttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2990542014-05-11T22:48:51+00:00An old woman with a crystal ballThere are a few in this list that are merely using the opportunity to gain some ...There are a few in this list that are merely using the opportunity to gain some fame and be in a better position to contest a Dail seat next time out. <br />
- Eamon Ryan of the Green Party <br />
- Mary Fitzpatrick of FF <br />
<br />
Eamon Ryan hasn’t a snowflake’s hope in hell of getting elected to Strasbourg, and he knows it. He has the dosh to spurge on a Euro election campaign, and get media time, people chatting about the election and so on. He may not even contest his old Dail constituency of Dublin South next time. This kinda of fame makes him known around the city. <br />
<br />
What a better way to remind people of a Green party that is not associated with FF, the IMF, selling out on Shannon Warport and Rossport (the list goes on) than to link the Green Party in the minds of the plebes with the European Parliament. Ah the glory days, Patricia McKenna, political principles, international agreements, ahhh !<br />
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Mary Fitzpatrick equally doesn’t have a chance and she also equally knows it. She intends to be the first FF TD in Dublin to be re-elected in the next Gen El. There is a vacuum within FF at the moment and she wants to make her mark on the future of the party. <br />
<br />
<strong><u>My call for the election is thus</u> </strong><br />
<br />
1 FG (alas) <br />
1 SF <br />
with a hell of a dog-fight between Paul Murphy and Nessa Childers with Ms Childers clinching it in the end <br />
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<em>As these elections go, this will be interested to watch </em>useful background infohttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2990572014-05-12T23:46:57+00:00SeoirseAs an emigrant I won't be able to vote in the Euro election, but thanks to the w...As an emigrant I won't be able to vote in the Euro election, but thanks to the writer for the succinct background information on those left-leaning candidates in Dublin. Maybe other writers could do something similar for the other, spread out, constituencies.The worrying development of a new Irish ultra right, racist party: NIP (national independence party - a kind of Irish UKIP)http://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2990892014-05-20T14:51:03+00:00DunkWhats the story with NIP, the irish version of UKIP, imagine they will quickly g...Whats the story with NIP, the irish version of UKIP, imagine they will quickly get support, plenty of willingness for such a racist platform in ireland... <strong>NIP IT IN THE BUD!</strong><br />
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Like many, I'm worried about the growth, AGAIN, of the ultra right, neo fascists in Europe. Last night the Irish public watched the RTE debate, where we saw the newest attempt at such a group in Ireland, a group of racists who want to get rid of migrants from Europe. We saw Peter O'Loughlin, of the National Independent Party, he sees himself as the front of an Irish UKIP. Worrying!<br />
<br />
- <strong>RTÉ Radio 1: National Independent Party</strong> (radio discussion)<br />
<a href="http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#" title="http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#">http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#</a>!rii=9:20506837:0 <br />
<br />
<blockquote style='padding: 0.5em; background-color: #CCFFCC;'><em>The European Project launched after the devastation of the Second World War faces the most serious threat in its history from a recently launched pan European alliance of far right parties who are vowing to ‘slay the monster in Brussels’ – so says John Palmer European commentator and journalist. Sean spoke to John Palmer this morning as well as Peter O’Loughlin spokesperson for the National Independent Party launched this week.</em></blockquote><br />
<br />
- <strong>National Independent Party: Ireland’s UKIP? Exposing far-right’s ‘start-up’ contradictions</strong> | Memet Uludag<br />
<a href="http://minordetailsnews.net/article/national-independent-party-irelands-ukip" title="http://minordetailsnews.net/article/national-independent-party-irelands-ukip">http://minordetailsnews.net/article/national-independen...-ukip</a> <br />
<br />
Peter O’Loughlin of NIP stated that the party’s position on immigration is “simply a question of numbers, not of ethnicity”.<br />
<br />
Soon, Mr. O’Loughlin will possibly discover it himself but, in politics surely nothing is just ‘simply’ one thing or the other. The bottom line for UKIP is its far-right, anti-immigrant, race based (aka ‘racist’) politics and the bottom line for NIP seems to be the same.<br />
<blockquote style='padding: 0.5em; background-color: #CCFFCC;'><em><br />
How can a party that - simply - identifies and categorizes people by race and ethnicity, in other words, originally non-Irish people, the migrants, and then claim that this is not about ethnicity but simply about numbers. Mr. O’Loughlin contradicts himself in his own statement. Are we to assume that NIP is not going to do politics based on ethnicity and race? But they are going to focus on migrants, and to do so they will have to use ethnicity and race.</em></blockquote><br />
<br />
- Discussion on thumped.com about NIP, Irish fascists<br />
<a href="http://thumped.com/bbs/threads/national-independent-party.92603/" title="http://thumped.com/bbs/threads/national-independent-party.92603/">http://thumped.com/bbs/threads/national-independent-par...2603/</a><br />
<blockquote style='padding: 0.5em; background-color: #CCFFCC;'><em><br />
"A representative of this crowd is on radio right now. Happily accepting plaudits from UKIP and matter of factly discussing The National Front as fellow travelers in the 'war' that is currently raging in Europe"</em></blockquote><br />
<br />
+ a funny fellows comment: <br />
<blockquote style='padding: 0.5em; background-color: #CCFFCC;'><em>"They need badges : 'I'M IN THE NIP' </em></blockquote>Prime Time European election candidate debateshttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2990902014-05-20T23:55:25+00:00TTonight RTE aired a prime time special on debates by the European Election candi...Tonight RTE aired a prime time special on debates by the European Election candidates. It was divided into two segments with those who are already MEPs and or have at least 10% of the poll as determined by opinion polls. It seems their speaking time was related to the percentages too. The first group therefore consisted of: Paul Murphy (MEP SP), Lynn Boylan (SF), Brian Hayes (FG), Emer Costello (MEP Lab), Nessa Childers (MEP, Ind) and Mary Fitzpatrick (FF).<br />
<br />
Murphy was asked the first question and started off very well making good points, followed by Boylan who had similar arguments, although Murphy being already an MEP seemed to know the issues a bit better. Then it was onto Labour and Costello seemed unsure and on the defensive carefully avoiding any mention of the Water Charges. But when that issue arose and it was put to her, she tried to dodge the issue. Hayes as expected try to put down both Murphy and Boylan but he came across as a bit too slick and appeared to be at best distorting facts in a spat with Boylan over a costing budget by SF. Overall it came across that as FG and FF in the past, have done, they cave into big business and it always winds up that the rich do very well whenever these two main capitalist parties are in. A bit later Childers had her chance to speak and she came out very good and very strong. When asked about why she left the Labour party, she stated that they left her as she still had her values but they didn't have theirs. She was doing well until Murphy pointed out that she did promote the Austerity Treaty. This was after all the candidates each in turn went on about jobs and bank debt. Hayes of course used this to rattle on about how FG had to bail out the banks to help business but as pointed out by some else, that is not quite the case, because the banks are still not lending to business despite being given billions to do so. <br />
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So if I had to pick out who came out looking like the best candidate, it would have to be Paul Murphy followed by Boylan and then Childers.<br />
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The second half of the Prime Time focused on the other candidates with less than 10% of the poll and this consisted of Brid Smith (PBP), Eamon Ryan (GP) and Damien Wise (FisNua) and two candidates from Direct Democracy Ireland, Tom Darcy and Raymond Whitehead. They were realistic that they weren't going to get it, but it was clever that they ran two candidates, since it may have given them a bit more air time and the whole process seems to have brought their party the public attention that they require to highlight what they are about.<br />
<br />
In this debate Brid Smith came out as an able speaker and campaigner and was more convincing their Eamon Ryan. The problem with Ryan is that there is still a lot of people out there would like the Green Party to succeed and do things along green and ecological lines, but Ryan is far too much to the right and into the market. He hardly ever mentions anything about zero growth or steady-state economy. As a representative of the green movement, he is not giving any voice to their real core concerns of that movement. In fact Damien Wise, who it would appear has perhaps little TV or speaking experience made more references to the true spirit of what sustainability is actually about, although he fell down in other places due to lack of clarity.<br />
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The two candidates from DDI used their time well and Whitehead just came across better although he didn't elaborate clearly enough on some of the key issues of the party which is about re-introducing Swiss style means of referenda by collecting enough signatures. It seems we had something like this in our constitution but one of FF / FG removed it very early on in the early days of the state.<br />
Don't vote for Mairead McGuiness (FG). She is pro GM food & crops and anti Organic Aghttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2990912014-05-21T15:32:55+00:00safe foodMairead McGuniness spent years building up her green and farming image through t...Mairead McGuniness spent years building up her green and farming image through the Ear to the Ground programme. She portrays herself as that, but she is in the pocket of the GM crop and biotech industry. She has supported introduction of GM animal feed into Ireland and the introduction of 'Low Level Presence' of GMOs. This allows for the widespread contamination of non GM crops by GM crops and opens the door to the whole thing.<br />
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Boot her out!<br />
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<a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/13020-gm-lobby-hijacks-european-parliaments-report" title="http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/13020-gm-lobby-hijacks-european-parliaments-report">http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/1302...eport</a><br />
<br />
Here's another case from 2006 <a href="http://www.gmfreeireland.org/politics/index.php" title="http://www.gmfreeireland.org/politics/index.php">http://www.gmfreeireland.org/politics/index.php</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote style='padding: 0.5em; background-color: #CCFFCC;'><em>On 6 November 2006, the European Parliament received a controversial draft resolution by Finnish MEP Kyosti Virrankoski entitled "Agriculture and Biotechnology: Prospects and Challenges for Agriculture in Europe", published in advance of the mid-term review of the EU Biotech Strategy scheduled for April 2007. The proposed resolution is replete with biotech industry bias and misinformation. It seeks to downgrade the status of the Precautionary Principle in EU law, to discredit the scientific evidence that GM crops do not perform as expected, to bolster the myth that GM crops will end world hunger, and to support giant agri-biotech corporations which want to seize control of European agricultural seeds through GMO crop patents. Irish MEPs Liam Aylward, Marian Harkin and Kathy Sinnott strongly criticised the text, amidst EU-wide calls for the Resolution to be withdrawn.<br />
<br />
Since then, MEPs from political parties across the EU submitted 190 amendments to the draft text. On 24 January 2007, the amended text was voted on by MEP members of the EU Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. The two Irish MEPs on this committee are Liam Aylward (Fianna Fáil) who wants Ireland to conserve its current GMO-free status, <strong>and Mairead McGuinness (Fine Gael) who seems determined to destroy it.</strong> 15 MEPs voted against the report, 6 abstained, and 22 voted in favour. </em></blockquote>Euro tallieshttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2990982014-05-24T20:56:41+00:00hackBoylan (SF) in Dublin sure to get in.
Ming Flanagan in Midlands North West also...Boylan (SF) in Dublin sure to get in.<br />
<br />
Ming Flanagan in Midlands North West also looks to take a seat.<br />
<br />
Overall as in the Locals, Sinn Fein and Independents are taking all the gains. <br />
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Regrettably some people have very short memories and FF's vote has gone up about 5%. Dublin Euro first preference countshttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2991042014-05-26T10:04:54+00:00hackLynn Boylan (SF) 83,264 -elected
Brian Hayes FG) 63,591 -elected
Eamon Ryan (GP)...Lynn Boylan (SF) 83,264 -elected<br />
Brian Hayes FG) 63,591 -elected<br />
Eamon Ryan (GP) 53,179<br />
Mary Fitzpatrick (FF) 44,283<br />
Nessa Childers (Ind) 35,939<br />
Paul Murphy (SP) 29,953<br />
Emer Costello (Lab) 25,961<br />
Brid Smith (PBP) 23,875<br />
Raymond White Whitehead (DDI) 3,133<br />
Tom Darcy (DDI) 4,022<br />
Jim Tallon (Ind) 2,244<br />
Damon Wise (FN) 1,147<br />
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Battle for the 3rd seat is between Ryan and Childers with recount called for.<br />
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Looks like Left vote was split badly because combined vote of SP and PBP would be greater than GPs.conservatism hasn't gone away you knowhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2991052014-05-26T10:19:46+00:00No Bertie@ Hack
"Regrettably some people have very short memories and FF's vote has gone...@ Hack<br />
<br />
"Regrettably some people have very short memories and FF's vote has gone up about 5%." All I can say is that conservative economic thinking hasn't gone away. People who vote FF and FG constitute the majority in Irish society. They hope "things will pick up" and that good old capitalist-mixed economy Ireland can revert to normal. Some gloomily think it may take several more years. Many middle class mortgage holders are cash strapped and fed up with claptrap announcements from mainstream politicians. So my guess is that they have used the Euros and the locals to "send them a message". They don't think the parliament in Strasbourg is so important, and they will revert (many of them) to the FF/FG consensus in the general election. A sea change has taken place in Dublin and elsewhere - the Labour Party has been transhed into fourth place in parliamentary politics; it has been shoved aside decisively in Dublin areas by the radical Left and by Sinn Fein. How long will Sinn Fein continue its upward swing on the pendulum? I don't venture a guess.<br />
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Real analysis needed.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2991072014-05-26T16:37:39+00:00Rational EcologistThe centre in Irish politics has moved to the right, and the left has moved with...The centre in Irish politics has moved to the right, and the left has moved with it.<br />
The Irish electorate moans about right wing policies but vote for right wing parties.<br />
Those on the left have little real vision, besides, correctly, opposing the various charges.<br />
There is no ecological/environmental element to the debate.<br />
Global Warming, Peak Oil and so on do not exist as far as RTE et al are concerned.<br />
Overpopulation x consumption =impact, dare not even be mentioned.<br />
It's a game and a distraction.<br />
The normal left/right analysis no longer applies, especially in Eire.<br />
I GIVE UP!!!!!!!!!<br />
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No I don't!Are most of the electorate just irrational idiots, acting against their own longer term interests?http://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2991092014-05-26T16:48:43+00:00fredperhaps the whole problem with politics is, as with economics, the assumption th...perhaps the whole problem with politics is, as with economics, the assumption that the<br />
"investor" / "voter" is actually rational.<br />
<br />
Maybe we need a new left wing / eco politics based on the assumption that at least 40% of the electorate <br />
(the FF/FG voters this time around) are pathologically stupid and easily manipulated time and time again.<br />
<br />
Certainly seems that way to me at this stage. <br />
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And yes it does make you just want to give up in exasperation<br />
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Democracy is beautiful in theory ; in practice it is a fallacy.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2991122014-05-27T13:46:09+00:00BennyFred may sound cynical but I've been saying the same thing for ages .What's the ...Fred may sound cynical but I've been saying the same thing for ages .What's the point in elections when so many voters are plain duh stupid ? Elections are just cosmetic exercises put on every four years to distract the gullible and make them believe they have some input into a "democratic" process .Strong leadership is what we really need at the moment for this country and you ain't gonna get that by consulting sheeple whose main interest is the price of a can of beer at the local Centra.Results of the european elections.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2991162014-05-28T13:27:04+00:00Crazy CatThe civic non-event of the year;
Here is a map of europe with the rates of abst...The civic non-event of the year;<br />
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Here is a map of europe with the rates of abstention<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.touteleurope.eu/actualite/labstention-dans-les-etats-membres-aux-elections-europeennes-2014.html" title="http://www.touteleurope.eu/actualite/labstention-dans-les-etats-membres-aux-elections-europeennes-2014.html">http://www.touteleurope.eu/actualite/labstention-dans-l....html</a><br />
<br />
And here in France:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/10417509_10152142504381977_1970609419878445437_n.jpg" title="https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/10417509_10152142504381977_1970609419878445437_n.jpg">https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/...n.jpg</a><br />
<br />
And another graph giving the results and the difference between the last ones and this one.<br />
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So nothing has changed. We shall see buisness as usual<br />
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<a href="http://www.touteleurope.eu/actualite/elections-europeennes-2014-les-resultats-en-europe.html" title="http://www.touteleurope.eu/actualite/elections-europeennes-2014-les-resultats-en-europe.html">http://www.touteleurope.eu/actualite/elections-europeen....html</a>Highlightshttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2991812014-06-06T23:26:55+00:00CaobhinBest thing about the Dublin EU vote was seeing Eamon Ryan celebrate his impendin...Best thing about the Dublin EU vote was seeing Eamon Ryan celebrate his impending victory after the first tallies. The Greens smug assumption that they were "transfer friendly" did not take account of peoples memories of their Labour-like betrayal when they propped up FF, betraying issues like Rossport and Tara in return for a few Ministries. Hence the left vote transferred to Childers at 2:1.<br />
<br />
On another note, cannot understand why less than one third of Brid Smiths no.2s went to Paul Murphy, so much for the pact.Some analysis of recent euro election results from a left perspectivehttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/104765#comment2991952014-06-10T00:30:02+00:00FredThis is worth a look
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/09/the-so-called-eu......This is worth a look<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/09/the-so-called-european-earthquake/" title="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/09/the-so-called-european-earthquake/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/09/the-so-called-eu...uake/</a>